Computers are being used on an ever-increasing basis to help users learn various skills, including learning a foreign language or improving one's native language. As the computer serves as a tutor with essentially unlimited time and unending patience, the skill set learned by a user is essentially a function of the quality of the instructional software in combination with the time and effort put forth by the user.
Users of such instructional language products generally are attempting to learn a language in a self-study environment, without the traditional classroom motivations of homework assignments, the desire to perform well in front of others, and the opportunity to communicate with others in the language. Many times, such users are often busy professionals who value their limited spare time and want to improve their skills in an efficient manner.
In general, the more realistic the language instruction, the better the user will comprehend, enjoy and retain the information being taught, and do so in a more efficient manner. Some computer-based language teaching products have included interactive processes as part of their teaching technique. For example, products may play video clips that branch to other video clips based upon user input during a pause between clips. Another product allows a user to click on displayed objects, and then provides information about each object clicked, e.g., the product displays and/or pronounces the word in the foreign language that is being studied. While such interactivity is often more entertaining, and to some extent, better than attempting to learn from a book, such interactivity is very limited and is not particularly realistic. No known product has heretofore situated the user in a realistic, virtual environment for learning a language.